2008 Soap Box Archives

Subject Revisited

A while back, I wrote a column on how I was concerned that some people in this country were developing a lackadaisical attitude toward Socialism and I think that the replies I got from some of the readers prove my point.

There is a degree of dangerous naiveté in this nation when it comes to Socialism. The countries where it has been forced on the citizens have led to disastrous results.

Okay, let's take Cuba and forget about Michael Moore and even medical care for a moment. I have been to Cuba four times. Cuba is in horrible shape, they cast their lot with Russia and adopted Socialism and Russia just sailed off and left them, taking their financial and military aid with them.

The Cuban side of the fence at Guantanamo Bay is heavily mined and still people have been known to blow off a foot coming across the mine fields just to make it to free soil, bringing with them their stories about the kind of Cuba Communism has turned it in to.

There is no reason for this. Cuba produces sugar and the finest tobacco in the world. It is a beautiful tropical island and could well be one of the Western Hemisphere's hottest vacation destinations, but as with all repressive governments, Cuba is afraid to let its citizens mingle with free people.

Let's look at China. I've been there too and I've never seen a more Capitalistic place in my life. The place is booming, forests of construction cranes in the sky as thousands of new buildings are being built.

In the days before the drastic turnabout, the Chinese farmers were required by the government to grow a certain amount of rice every year, but farmers could make more money growing other crops like vegetables. So they would buy the amount of rice they were required to grow from another source and use their own land to grow the more lucrative crops. That's entrepreneursmanship, that's Capitalism.

But healthcare in China? Do you want to have your appendix taken out there?

And I didn't get all my information about the Canadian health care program from the Internet; I talked to people from Canada.

However, I think we should ask some of our readers in Canada to chime in on how they feel about the healthcare program they've adopted, if they prove me wrong I'll stand corrected, but I'd love to get some more first hand information from our Canadian friends.

I have a friend whose wife had a brain aneurism on an airplane headed for England. I won't go into the details but suffice it to say that they experienced a nightmare at the hands of British socialized medicine.

You can't have Socialism without having government at least interfere if not control every aspect of your life, did you know that in Holland you have to get a building permit to build a dog house, and that if you have a home invader all you can do is call the police and basically try to talk the guy into staying around until they get there. You cannot violently restrain him, and no, I didn't read this on the Internet, it was told to me by a Dutch citizen on a trip there.

Nobody is going to present a program and call it Socialist, except maybe Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, but that's just not the way it's done. They'll call it something lofty like, "Universal Healthcare", and if it's implemented, an unsuspecting American public will not even know what hit them until it's too late.

They'll start out by telling you that, "Oh no, you can go to any doctor or hospital you want to." This will turn out to be an out and out lie and eventually there will be a government bureaucracy that will tell you what doctor and hospital you can go to and what treatment you can and cannot have and when you can have it.

Let's take a look at the socialism we already have in this country.

The postal system is socialized and the price of stamps just keep on going up.

Medicare is socialized. Have you ever seen a bigger mess?

Social Security is socialized and it's always in jeopardy because the Congress keeps dipping into the fund for it's own greedy purposes.

Is there anybody out there who thinks that if all the nation's healthcare was put into the hands of these self centered bunglers it would be anything less than a total disaster?

I would love to see something done about healthcare. I carry it on my employees and it continues to go up every year. It's one of the major expenses in running a business, but believe me, the government taking it over is definitely not the way to go.

Every time we put a dollar into the federal government they only use 28 to 30 cents of it to take care of the country's business. The rest is taken up by administrative costs. Any private business that was operated like the federal government would be out of business in a year. Remember, they don't produce anything; they just spend money, your money.

I don't have the answer to our healthcare dilemma. I'm just simply not that smart, but I'll promise you that what's being proposed by the major Presidential candidates is not the way to go and I hope and pray that we won't have to find it out the hard way.

Remember, Socialism is nothing less than giving the federal government power over your life and believe me they can't handle it.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

May 27 , 2008